Master of Finance

Key facts

Eighteen months (1.5 years) full-time study; Up to a maximum of five years part-time study.

Available for international students studying in NZ

Get to the heart of finance

This degree combines the study of advanced theory with research in a specialised finance area to give you a career advantage.

What is it like?

Massey University’s Master of Finance is a detailed, specialised degree that will give you the skills and knowledge to move to a higher level of seniority in your career.

Learn from leading business experts

The Massey Business School is one of the country’s leading and largest business schools - it is ranked among the top two per cent of business schools globally and is AACSB accredited.

Massey University’s accountancy and finance programme ranks in the 150 universities in the world and its business and management studies in the top 250 (by QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) rankings). We are also ranked in the top 150 universities worldwide for business administration and finance programmes by the ShanghaiRanking's Global Ranking of Academic Subjects.

You will learn from well-respected academics and business experts, gaining an international perspective.

To get the maximum benefit from this specialised qualification, you must have an undergraduate degree in finance and preferably some experience in the finance sector. You will use your own experiences to build your finance-sector expertise.

Complete in a shorter time

This masters qualification offers the same rigorous and prestigious programme as other masters degrees, yet can be completed in only three semesters (180 credits), or one and half years. The Master of Finance can also be taken as a one-year programme after completing a Bachelor of Business Studies (Honours) in Finance. If you wish to complete a more in-depth masters research project you may extend your degree out to 240 credits.

What will you learn?

A masters is a rigorous, challenging, rewarding and exciting programme of study. Your study will focus on your chosen major, but help you put this speciality into the context of other business disciplines - reflecting the reality of today’s business environment.

To succeed at a senior level in business, or academia, you must be able to communicate your work and findings effectively. The Master of Finance will help develop your oral and written communication skills to the level expected of senior business leaders.

You will learn the processes and disciplines involved in high-level in-depth research and how to apply them to business.

Convenient for those in the workforce

This degree is offered in block mode, which means that rather than attending regular lectures, you will attend one or more periods of intensive study on campus.

Relevant learning

Massey University conducts an internationally-recognised research programme in economics, finance, banking and property.

We are also involved in or lead several renowned research centres in the areas of applied and theoretical economics, financial services, public policy evaluation, financial literacy, real estate, social innovation and sustainable development.

The Master of Finance also has a focus on real-world learning. We utilise our relationships with industry and help you draw on experience you may have to give your learning context and relevance to the real world. You will be taught by some of New Zealand's leading practitioners and learn the application of techniques in real world environments, like our Trading Room - the only one of its kind in a New Zealand university.

Why postgraduate study?

Postgraduate study is hard work but hugely rewarding and empowering. The Master of Finance will push you to produce your best creative, strategic and theoretical ideas. The workload replicates the high-pressure environment of senior workplace roles. Our experts are there to guide but if you have come from undergraduate study, you will find that postgraduate study demands more in-depth and independent study.

Not just more of the same

Postgraduate study is not just ‘more of the same’ undergraduate study. It takes you to a new level in knowledge and expertise especially in planning and undertaking research.

A good fit if you:

“Apart from developing a broad knowledge of financial markets, I benefited massively from the real world learning, presentation and public speaking practice at Massey…”

I chose Massey University because it offered the degree that I thought would give me the best shot at getting the job I wanted. It appeared to give a good mix between taught theory and industry practice. And it did!

For example when I started work I could sit down next to our traders and start typing away at Bloomberg terminals without needing help, due to my Massey Trading Room experience. Traders are not used to seeing that from grads!

Massey staff are incredibly helpful. They know that pure academic learning isn’t enough to make you the best applicant for jobs in the tough grad market and help you find opportunities to develop yourself.

For instance I was co-president of the Investment Club, a member of Massey’s team in the global CFA Research Challenge, helped with the opening of the Trading Room, and was a tutor and research assistant. The last two helped me pay my way through university!

Outside study, the friends I made have also gone on get jobs in banking, corporate finance and investment management. They are really making their mark.

Careers

Earn more

A Ministry of Education report found that:

Earnings and employment rates increase with the level of qualification completed

Five years after leaving study, most young domestic graduates will be earning above the national median earnings

Young masters graduates earn 86 per cent more than the national median

Good careers are associated with better health, better wellbeing and more satisfying lives

World-leading lecturers and supervisors

Massey’s finance staff are internationally-renowned for their research and teaching and learning methods. You will be working with internationally-recognised finance researchers and specialists, for example:

Professor Ben Marshall

Professor Marshall’s research has been published in internationally respected academic journals, such as the Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Banking and Finance, Journal of Empirical Finance, Journal of International Money and Finance, and Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, and journals with a practitioner focus.

He has also had his work accepted by each of the top three finance conferences: American Finance Association (AFA), Western Finance Association (WFA), and the European Finance Association (EFA). He is currently ranked in the top 1% of authors on the international working paper website SSRN (based on downloads of his papers) and his work has generated widespread interest including discussions in numerous newspapers and investment blogs. Ben is a member of the Australian New Zealand Shadow Finance Regulatory Committee and serves on the editorial board of a number of journals. He has also consulted to public and private companies in a range of different areas. His research interests include asset return predictability, quantitative investment techniques, market microstructure, commodities and liquidity

In 2015, Professor Marshall was made Massey University’s first MSA Charitable Trust Chair in Finance.